Bill's Blog

BILL BLOG Tuesday November 5, 2024   Election Day Tuesday is on us. A little rain here in Nashville as folks go to vote with a high of 77.   YESTERDAY I sat and wrote with Thomm Jutz at his studio home east of Nashville on a perfect Monday weather wise. It’s such a pleasure to write with Thomm…he tends to be a fast writer as am I…and yesterday was no exception.   On the way to his house I was listening to some music and a song came on I’d never heard that moved me. And a title came to me that I gave Thomm as I played him that song I had just listened to. He loved the thought…and pretty quickly we shaped a country, maybe bluegrass ballad song with feeling.     On top of his great writing skills Thomm is such a skilled guitar player. I could sit on his couch and just listen to him play guitar all day long. Heck he played out on the road with the late-great Nancy Griffith for a long while meaning he played guitars on classics like “From A Distance” and “ Love

BILL BLOG Monday November 4, 2024 Monday morning be here…ready or not. And the clocks have fallen back. This week I’ll be making a trip to Gulf Shores for the Frank Brown Songwriters Festival…so my eyes are on the tropical storm Rafael forming out in the Caribbean that could reach the Emerald Coast. Hopefully not.   THE WEEKEND Friday morning I was in a writing room with Byron Hill who has a long line of credits and hits to his name. It was the second time the two of us sat down to rhyme together. Byron is from North Carolina originally so he loves bluegrass, and has had several cuts in that genre, though he may be best known for his mainstream hits for George Strait , George Jones , Gary Alan , Alabama , Ray Charles and on and on. He’s in the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame for crying out loud.     Both of us have had our songs recorded by our friends Darin & Brooke Aldridge so we have that connection. And the song idea Byron brought in Friday morn

BILL BLOG Friday  November 1, 2024   And here it is the first day of November. And it’s a Friday! Little cooler today in Nashville after getting some rain yesterday. It will be sunny with a high of just 65.   YESTERDAY I wrote with the husband-wife team of Jenny Tolman and Dave Brainard …and their now almost 2 year boy Bear who was our percussionist.      We spent some time finishing up a song we started a couple of months ago and spent some time catching up. They’re just back from an all-girl festival out in Jackson Hole, Wyoming that Jenny is host of that’s a very cool event. Ashley McBryde headlined and pretty much every show that they had was sold out.   Always a very fun hang with this talented couple.   LAST NIGHT My wife Kathy and I had the pleasure of hanging out back stage at the Opry for Opry “Classic” night…a night where every star on stage sings those great classic country songs. And last night our friend Linda Davis was perform

BILL BLOG Thursday October 31, 2024 Hello Halloween. October 31…last day of pumpkin month. 77 with a little light rain in Nashville today so the trick or treaters will need an orange umbrella tonight.   Meanwhile out west they have a winter storm warning out for 12 states with as much as 2 feet of snow predicted in some areas. Uh…no thanks.   YESTERDAY I wrote with Trop Rock artist Kirstie Kraus at my publishing company. Kirstie just won a couple of independent music awards back to back weeks so she’s on a bit of a music roll right now. We share a bit of a Wisconsin connection as she was born and raised there and I spent six years on the radio in Milwaukee at one point in my radio career. And we are both in the Trop Rock world some.   So yesterday we did the obvious thing and wrote another beach song for her to consider for her next album…and there’s always a next “beach” album coming in the Trop Rock world.   It’s always fun writing those kinds of